Warriors update: Is Don Nelson playing opt-out mind games with Crawford?

Before I get to Don Nelson’s new love-hate thing with Jamal Crawford, let’s review the absent Warriors, shall we?

* Monta Ellis is still not with the team (at least as far as I know) due to a combination of a family issue and a stiff ankle, which he either has or is about to have examined by doctors.

His comeback so far: 13 games in a Warriors uniform.

Nobody seems to know when he’ll be back, though the Warriors said more than a week ago that they expected him back during this road trip, which only has two games and three days left to go.

* Brandan Wright hurt his shoulder on Jan. 7 and has barely been seen since, though it was not at the time presumed to be a very serious injury.

* Andris Biedrins played in the Warriors’ lost at Chicago last night, but MT-2 reports that Biedrins has returned to the Bay Area for a family matter and it’s uncertain if Biedrins will make it back to the team in time for tomorrow’s game in Detroit. (Or probably Saturday’s game in Milwaukee, I’d imagine.)

Have I missed anybody? Hard to keep track of all these departing Warriors and their ever-fuzzy, always elongated return dates.

I think the easy summary is this: This is an incredibly unstable period, and Nelson is only making it more and more unstable with every day. (Psst: THAT’S HIS SPECIALITY.)

Now let’s get to the Crawford situation. I’ve heard that when Nelson explained Crawford’s recent one-game benching, he spoke about getting the younger players more time, etc, etc.

But Nelson also told Crawford that he was doing the complete benching in order to help Crawford’s per-game averages, all the better for when (or if) Crawford opts-out, which Nelson very much wants him to do this summer.

That is a loud and clear NBA message, by the way. By even mentioning the opt-out (Crawford can erase the final two years and $19M+ on his deal), Nelson was indicating to Crawford that Nelson wanted him to opt-out.

Even more, Nelson was suggesting that Crawford HAD BETTER OPT-OUT or else Nelson would probably make sure that the situation next year isn’t to Crawford’s liking.

My understanding is that Crawford’s reaction was the same as any proud player’s reaction: Why in the world should I be pushed into a decision like that?

First off, I don’t know if Crawford is going to opt-out, but the shrinking economy tells you that he is unlikely to get better than $20M guaranteed to him on the open market this summer, especially when his coach is not-so-privately grousing about him.

Secondly, nobody has been more critical of Crawford’s defensive liabilities than me, but NBA value is NBA value and you don’t want to be blasting your player’s value as dismissively as that.

Thirdly, I heard Nelson not long ago say that Crawford was his best point guard and that the other candidates weren’t the right fit at the 1. What in the world is going on?

Hmm. I’ve written time and again that Ellis and Nelson is not a good mix (and have been yelled at and let’s please all remember who was doing the yelling as this plays out).

Marco Belinelli is getting yanked in and out of the heavy rotation of late.

Nelson is trying to shove Crawford into opting out, and therefore messing up Crawford’s marketability, which, in the end, probably will drive Crawford NOT to opt out this summer. (That’s after handling the Al Harrington situation SOOOO well, then trading Harrington for Crawford.)

I repeat: What in the world is Nelson doing? If you guess that he’s trying to make things as messy as possible, either to shake up the Warriors or to make his firing (with TWO YEARS and $12M left on the deal after this season) as inevitable and quick as possible…

Well, those are good guesses. Can’t wait until the next Don Nelson Show.

Why not throw in global warming and the financial crisis, too? It’s all part of the evil Nellie’s plot to CREATE INSTABILITY in the entire world!!!! THAT’S HIS SPECIALTY!!!!!

Kawikami is crazy

Dude you make me so sick, you love to contradict. How can you be saying that there not a good fit (ellis/nelson) and say youve been saying that all along? Thats faaarr from the truth, does everyone remember all summer, kawikami was promoting bringing crawford here because hes 6″5″ and maggette because he can score. I wish San Jose Mercury had the gusto to call this guy out when he contradicts hisself for puprose of a story.

Why make so much drama over nothing? Let’s just call it what it is–the team is tanking.

Having gotten hit by the national buzzsaw over the original tactic of sitting his veterans; Nellie has decided to just go the route of past coaches and give the history tested excuse of injury and family matters to sit the vets.

lobo

I would bet anything what you see going on is a deliberate aatempt to get fired and pick up an easy 12 million. If this ever…and it wouldn’t got to a courtroom there would be no possibility to prove that it was intentionally sabotaging the team. I would love to see Jeff Van G take over the reins here as this is a bad joke. Nellie was in the right place at the right time..he was the lynchpin to give Rowell knowldege of basketball to shove Chris out….no doubt in my mind….we will never know, but the Oliver Stone ending would be Nellie/Chris split the 12 million!!!

Scott

Its March now Tim and Nelson still hasn’t missed any games like you said he would back in the beginning of January. In fact that is when you said he would start skipping them . . . beginning of January. Oh . . . and Monta is still a Warrior right?

Jeremy

If Nelson is trying to convince Crawford to opt out…. hopefully he’s successful. It’s pretty obvious when you watch Jamal play why he has never been on a winning team. I don’t think he was even on a winning team in college. He’s a loser and should be playing at Rucker or on the And1 Mixtape tour instead of the NBA. Too bad he can’t use his impressive size, vision, and quickness to become an elite defender and creater and instead only cares about scoring.

Please go away Jamal and never return.

EB

As much as I like to fire back and vehemently disagree I won’t, just yet. I usually read and listen to every Nellie interview out there and I did hear and read him mention the issue of sitting guys for among other reasons, he didn’t want to mess up their averages if they suit up but play less minutes than usual. But I didn’t hear him say that specifically regarding Jamal not do I remember him mentioning it in the context of his buy-out option. So my question is, if he did say that what publication had the quote or what media outlet did the interview? Or, is this another one of TK’s, “I heard he told Jamal this” garbage stories? Again sorry to ask, but with your history reporting untrue things about the team, I have to know before I respond one way or the other.

Bob S

I love all the pro-Nelson guys, are you all pleased with the way the team is playing?

tk, i think you give nellie way too much credit. is he the master of the spin? yes. does he mess w/ the rooks and vets alike? sure. is he selfish and self serving? of course.

certainly a lot of negative signs, but the guy is obviously not that smart and isn’t a long-term visionary.

this guy is toast, he just wants his 13XX wins and then he’ll be bye bye bye.

uweblab

San Jose Kings! (with Chris Mullin as their GM)….

We Believe!!!

Bob

Same old TK. It’s good to know some things won’t change in a climate of great social and economic changes sweeping the world. I used to think TK held personal grudges against Bonds, Zito, Nelson, etc. but it seems it’s just TK being TK. I am curious as to if TK believes half the crap that he shovels in his blog.

ERIC

BEST TK ARTICLE EVER! YOU SAID IT ALL!

MikeM

Gawd. It’s the most obvious tank in the history of the league.

This team isn’t gonna win 30, and it’s absolutely clear, given their current roster at 100%, with the head coach trying, they’d win 33.

Going intentionally from 33 wins to 28 wins isn’t even going to help them that much. They’re risking sanctions for this, you know.

Blame game, in order. Mully is a distant #4 and by all accounts, his mistakes were honest.

1. Cohan
2. Rowell
3. Nelson
4. Mullin

Scotty

How are Monta and Nellie not a good fit? Monta flourished last year under Nellie and the year before for that matter. Small ball, up and down pace. Think that fits Monta quite nicely. I’m pretty sure the ankle injury had a little more to do with this terrible season than the cohesiveness or lack thereof between Nellie and Monta.

gmoney

If Nellie is such a master at the mindf**k don’t you think he would use his powers to get Crawford to play some D instead of tanking his team? Its so ridiculous to give this guy extra-human powers of manipulation when he can’t even get his guard to stop the ball on a break. Nellie was rewarded for his brilliant run to the playoffs with a roster he wouldn’t chose to coach if you gave him 100 million dollars. Now he’s making due with the crap he has.

As for Crawford, he said first he wants to play for a winner, before any of this. To hell with him. Winners play D. Hopefully Nellie will make Crawford realize he is not welcome to the point where he will leave no matter what the market gives him. Nice work Nellie. Now if you could only do that with Rowell and Cohen I would love you even more.

DON NELSON IS THE KING OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!

that like still makes me chuckle.

pboss

Why do so many of you blast TK for him doing his job and blasting Nellie? Would anybody disagree that this team is an absolute mess rigtht now?

Don’t understand the Nellie lovers at all. This team sucks. They’re extremely flawed, and Nellie continues to hold back the one bright spot on the team, the young talent.

This team is a joke.

Top

This team sucks because this roster is manure, not because of coaching. You can have Phil Jackson or Popovich coaching this team and the results are the same. The roster is horribly constructed by a hack with no basketball knowledge in Robert Rowell. Who decided that a PG is not needed on an NBA team.

If Nelson was trying to get Crawford to opt-out he would be sitting out Crawford more. Oh wait he sat out Jackson too? I guess he wants him gone. TK should be getting ripped, because he writes a bunch of crap he makes up in his head. He has no inside sources in the Warriors as proven by his “Monta wants to leave the Warriors” blog comedy.

Earl Monroe

“No no we are not moving Jack, “God dammit Keith, tell Jack to go right once in a while” Jack keeps things loose, and Ms. Joy would never let me trade him, before Jack, Mullie was her favorite, well yeah yeah he was my favorite too, (sly huckster from Iowa smile) but then Jackie came along and as you know, the rest is history, no no we just need a couple of pieces and we’re gonna be good. I have one season to win it all and I promise we are going to play defense next year, because Kawakami will roast me if we don’t or is his name Kamakaze? whatever”

“I say he stays, and I have the final say, I mean I mean me and Mullie, ohh what the heck its really me making the trades”

Craptain Jack

Top: the problem with your little theory is that neither Pop or Phil Jackson would be pulling the lame brained nonsense Nelson pulls every friggin night with their rotations, nor would they put up with half the junk Jack gets away with nightly. the difference is those guys know how to coach, and have the respect of their players. This team has talent, managed by a senile old fart who doesn’t really want to coach. he just wants to get paid.

Seems like we’re jumping the gun here a bit… Not playing Crawford DOES help his per game average as he needs about 2 minutes of playing time for every point he averages. (37.9 minutes a game, 18.8 average)

Meanwhile, Maggette is averaging 35 minutes as a starter with an 18.7 scoring average.

He’s averaging 30.35 minutes coming off the bench with a 20.5 per game average. (Much more efficient coming off the bench… with about the same number of rebounds and assists per game in less minutes.)

gmoney

Man it makes me sick to see warriors fans bagging on Nellie and Jax. If you are going to blame this on anyone, it sure as hell isn’t those two.

Hey Craptain Jack, you just made my point for me. In 2003, Pop DID play Jax in their Championshop run. He was their third leading scorer and a team leader. Everyone on the team loved him as both Tim Duncan and Mike Brown (assistant coach at the time) said so. Jax is an amazing player who does everything well but nothing exceptionally well. He has his turnover yes, but thats because he is playing out of position initiating offense. Why? Because we don’t have pg!

Bringing it back to Nellie. Please please please explain to me how you expect anything more from a team that starts the season, and plays the entire season, with no pointguard? It still boggles the mind that you people expect more out of the man. As it was, Ellis at point was going to be iffy as many people projected regression and a 30-35 win season. They played the whole year without ellis and will probably get close to 30 wins. If it weren’t for injuries and the fear of dropping too far out of the lottery sweepstakes, this team would have made a run as Nellie had the playing some good, entertaining ball.

Remember, the NBA is not like the NFL when it comes to who picks when. The more we lose, the more balls we get, the more balls we get the better our chances of landing a high pick. If you really want this team to succeed take all the misplaced anger you guys have towards two of our aces, and focus them like a laserbeam at the Ownership.

no TK hater here

Wow, Kawakami seems to have more and more people hate him everytime I read his blog. If you idiots don’t like what he writes then why do you keep reading his stuff? So you can be informed on how much you don’t like him? Are your lives so pathetic and devoid of attention that you can’t find something more personally fulfilling than to rail on a sports columnist? I enjoy your work Tim, keep it up!

Nellie did this stuff in Milwaukee, with the Warriors the first time, in New York and with Dallas. It is far from shocking that he is playing head games with players and executives. Poor Chris Mullin, at least he gets out of this mess with his dignity and reputation still intact. The rest of you homers that keep buying the season tickets and keep watching this erratic, confused and mostly useless team pretty much deserve it. I would rather watch hockey anyway!

your very bitter since you got punked by the old man from the raiders.you supply the most content for warriors fans. thats why we read.not because your a good writer. your writing is really bitter. bay area teams are not very good. except the sharks. we as bay area fans like things that suck. thats why we read your garbage. you’ve been tanking your blog for a year now.

formerhasbeen

Agree with TK. A bit too negative, but fundamentally accurate. And the sort of thing I want to read from writers covering the team instead of the bootlicking.

Zume

TK has the basics down. Nelson is messing it up and needs to go.

The problem with TK’s writing is the way he goes about making his case. He needs to convince us with good information and sound reasoning. He should work on making his point by increasing the truthfulness and less speculative truthiness gossip.

I have not heard a convincing argument at to what the heck Nelson is actually doing. I for one am totally mystified by his decision making in the details. Overall, I think he is tanking. In the game to game playing time decisions, why is he not developing the youth? So his vets can keep their stats up – that cannot be it.

Zume

The most convincing argument for Nelsons player minute decisions is to give the 2 fingered salute to Mullin and keep Mullin favorites from doing well. If that is the case then he is truly a messed up individual.

Ok, maybe you can’t blame Nellie for his roster (although he had to have some input on it) but you CAN blame him for his rotations (not playing the young guys nearly enough) and his refusal to take out his “stars” (SJack + Crawford specifically) when they are either A. playing no defense B. having a horrible shooting night C. turning the ball over repeatedly. I agree that SJack deserves some slack since he has the ball in his hands a lot this season, but it seems like he is just not learning from his turnover mistakes, and Nellie doesn’t appear to care. Also, its one thing if you have a superstar (e.g. Kobe) doing iso’s frequently, but its painfully clear that SJack doesnt have the skills (dribbling, shooting, and passing) to be dominating this many posessions for your team.

Don Nelson is playing mind games with every player on the team.
Nothing Nellie does is w/o a pre-determined, calculated motive behind it.

Sure is whack.

Team Twilight Zone

Nellie sucks….

No one cares about us winning in this nonplayoff season. Its not about wins and losses. Everyone knows we have and young team….

NO ONE EXPECTED US TO BE A TOP WESTERN CONFERENCE TEAM….

Our youth being unexperienced is NOT an EXCUSE for Don Nelson….
The Warriors not being a good team is NOT an excuse for Don Nelson….

There is NO EXCUSE for Don Nelson CONSTANTLY being a distracting, dramatic, immature, distruptive, diversion OBSTRUCTING our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd MOST IMPORTANT things for our team..EVERYTIME……

DEVELOPING OUR YOUNGEST PLAYERS……

A’s in 2009

VOID ROWELL 👿

NIKO–Marin

Like I said months ago get rid of Nelson eat his contract and bring in another coach (Marc Jackson) As far as Rowell get over it he’s not going anywhere……..EASY ain’t it……..

Bosnia Fan

Just wait until summer. Nelson will try to rip this roster apart to serve his own interests. If he gets rid of Crawford, no harm there, but if Randolph goes, there will be hell to pay. But with the lousy contracts the Warriors have, he probably would have to give AR away to get anything. When AR is a star somewhere else, Nelson won’t care, he will have his wins record, $12 million and probably two more mediocre seasons.

I think TK and others are reading a bit too much into all the absences. No doubt that ME is angry he got fined $3 million, but I doubt it is because there is something between Nelson and him. Don’t understand why people say DN doesn’t like ME or AB – two young players that Nelson actually successfully developed. Both are/will be $66 million richer because of him (OK, ME only $63 million now). Both have been key ingredients to GSW’s recent, but already seemingly distant, success.

Buster

“San Jose Kings! (with Chris Mullin as their GM)….” — WTF is the love affair with Mullin all about? He is easily in the bottom 5 worst GMs in the NBA, EASILY. This guy has a horrible eye for talent and the personality of a tree stump. But he could sure drain the 3, right Warriors fans!! Vocal support of this guy’s failed GM tenure is akin to stamping an “I’m a jock sniffing idiot” sticker on your forehead.

gmoney

I love the logic behind some of your arguments. Nellie, soon to be the winningest coach in the history of the sport, is losing on purpose while at the same time staying with the Warriors only so he can get the all time win record. I mean do you not see the inherent contradiction in that line of thinking? I think I just had a seizure just writing that. Good lord people, think before you write.

james

I thought he was onto something until I read that he didnt think Crawford could get better than the 20 million in guaranteed money if he opted out. The MLE is like 34 million dollars . Crawford could pull that from any team that is over the cap.

At this point I think the decision will eventually become .

Make 20 million and waste the next two years of my prime being subject to nelsons madness and S.Jack fetish and missing the playoffs

or

opt out and sign with a contender for the MLE and spend the rest of his prime years in the playoffs and winning games . He could opt again in 3 years at 31 and still get another MLE deal or a nice raise . .If he plays well on a contender that money is there at 31 easily.

TK and MT 2 seem to have lost their way. A few years beack, they did good reporting and were the only meaningful source of W’s info in nasty summer.

Since then, they have both been totally hysterical with the drama. Monta is a W. RR controls the contract. You think Jeff Freid (Monta’s agent), hasn’t been to Billy Hunter, lawyers, ANYONE to try and gain leverage with the brass? You think the answer has been different once? Monta fell off a crotch rocket (moped? please!), and deserves to go through this. He should have had it voided AND the W’s keep his rights. If he ever recovers, he is a W. But he has no say, no choice, and should have no opinion. He knows it, his agent knows it, and we all know it. Except Tim and Marcus keep crying that the sky is falling, and it sounds like trying to write a sexy article when there is no news. Monta can complain all he wants. His choices are recover and be a Warrior or go get a job.

That he might have gone on holiday during this road trip is more of an exposure that Nelson is losing it than anything else. We are a PG away from relavance again, but we have Randolph now, and he is going to be Godlike. Monta wants to play with him, and I can fully understand his frustration. Keep putting 4 guards and Dre out there. Keep putting Maggette and Crawford, (never made a pass in their collective lives), keep refusing to play a real power forward, and yes, you will end up like this every time. I respect Don, but if this is his game, he can sit and play Keith.

Alvin

I definitely agree with Jeremy.. Crawford was never on a winning team and he doesnt use his talents to make his teammates better! He can probably be successful in an and1 mix tape tour or rucker, harlem etc. Very inconsistent Warriors dont need players like him! Fancy dribbling doesnt win ball games!! REAL TALK HE’S JUST A SHOWOFF AND ALL HE DOES IS FANCY DRIBBLING AND SHOOT BAD SHOTS!!!